Location, Location: Some States Still Up for Grabs, but Money Chase Leads Elsewhere

It’s crunch time for President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney, and that means a strong final fundraising push from both presidential campaigns.Overall in this election cycle, Obama has a nearly $153 million fundraising advantage over Romney, despite the president’s summer slump when the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee outraised him and the Democratic National Committee for three straight months. Obama’s side outraised Romney’s, $114 million to $111.6 million, in August, though Obama’s campaign by itself raised about $2.2 million less than the Republican candidate’s, $83.8 million to $86 million.

Now, with less than seven weeks until Nov. 6, it’s likely the candidates will look to their top fundraising states for some extra cash. For both men, that means heading back to California, the state that’s been the top fundraising locale for each of them — producing $39.4 million for Obama, accounting for 20 percent of his contributions of more than $200, and $23.9 million for Romney, making up 11 percent of his.

Specifically, Orange County, San Francisco and the Los Angeles-Long Beach area have been the most generous, raising $5.8 million, $11.9 million and $19 million, respectively, for both candidates together. Romney spent time in Orange County last week for his fourth fundraiser there since March, increasing his support from Californians, and it’s likely he’ll return in the next few weeks.

The Republican candidate also visited Texas last week — his second-largest overall fundraising state. As of the end of August, Texans have donated about $19.3 million to Romney’s campaign, with Houston and Dallas ranking in his top ten metropolitan fundraising regions. The two areas combined for about $1.7 million in August.

Obama appeared in his No. 2 contributing state, New York, on Tuesday, after being there just last week. New Yorkers have already given him $24.1 million, compared to Romney’s $17.8 million. The president’s fundraiser last week was in New York City, which has raised about $19.2 million for him in this election cycle – almost 11 times as much as the next largest contributing metropolitan area, Nassau-Suffolk ($1.8 million).In addition to California, Texas and New York, voters can expect both candidates to touch base with some of their other top donor states. For Romney, that means Florida and Virginia — which have brought in $18.1 million and $7.7 million for him, respectively. Obama could hit his home state, Illinois, and Massachusetts, which has been a big supporter of him over its former governor. In the 2012 cycle, Massachusetts has raised $11.7 million for Obama, while Romney has gathered just $7.6 million from the Bay State.

Romney is better positioned to do some important campaigning while on some of his fundraising trips, considering that Virginia and Florida are swing states.

Earlier this week, Romney spoke to reporters on his private charter plane while en route to Denver from Los Angeles and blamed Obama for forcing both candidates into a dash for cash when he decided not to accept public financing for his campaign.

“I’d far rather be spending my time out in the key swing states campaigning, door-to-door if necessary, but in rallies and various meetings, but fund-raising is a part of politics when your opponent decides not to live by the federal spending limits,” Romney told The New York Times.

Romney is an unlikely advocate for public financing, though. In addition to rejecting it in 2008, earlier this year he said during a Republican primary debate, “I would like to get rid of the campaign finance laws. Let people make contributions they want to make to campaigns.”

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